Filmmaker looking for someone to answer some technical questions!

Hi! I'm a student filmmaker and I want to make a short film that would have a scene where the protagonist is climbing a cliff. Most of this will be done with green screens, but I do want to get some of the technical details right like what the character is wearing/doing.

If you'd want to answer a couple questions send me a message or leave a reply below! Thank you!

The vertical limit is mostly accurate. Good luck in your project. 

Connor Dobsonwrote:

The vertical limit is mostly accurate. 

This guy is pulling your chain. Ask away.

caesar.saladwrote:

This guy is pulling your chain. Ask away.

So the scene I have in mind doesn't have any dialogue or anything, it's simply the character scaling a vertical cliff (forgive me if I'm using any of these terms wrong). I'm going to create a 3D mountain (I have experience with VFX) and just green screen the actor in. But, I do want a slight sense of peril in one part, like his hand slips or something. What are some common causes that might cause someone's hand to slip, like if a rock was loose or something?

And another idea I had was when he slips he loses all his grip and just dangles from the rope for a minute? But, I don't know how anchors work or anything like that.

Basically, how would this sort of scenario go down? He loses his grip and dangles from a rope for a minute before continuing his climb. What are the technical details that would cause this, how would his rope hold him, etc.

Hope this makes sense!

Basically - guy climbs tied to a rope, guy down below holds the rope. As he goes up he clips in to the rock so when he falls and dangles, he only falls whatever distance of rope is between him and the last thing he clips. Occasionally, when high up on a cliff, everything comes disconnected and the two attached climbers fall down scything everyone below them off. In other scenarios, specialized drills (basically bolt guns) are used to fire bolts in the rock to hang ropes on to descend. Also, the very best climbers don't use ropes and make high budget movies about them doing so.

Basically, your shot should show a guy climbing about 10 feet above a bolt, he slips off, falls 25 feet or so, dangles, collects himself, and keeps climbing.

Also - causes? Rock could break, hand gets tired and can't hold on, foot slips on a tiny foothold, amateurs from above knock you off.

Watch this short video it shows falling while lead climbing:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJZ8OxYP5T4

It is instructional but will give you an idea.

Connor Dobsonwrote:

The vertical limit is mostly accurate. Good luck in your project. 

God damn it, Connor

Your climber should be lead climbing if you want a sense of peril. In top roping the rope is already at the top of the route and falls aren't really falls, you just kind of sit on the rope. Lead climbing has actual fall potential. Lead falls could be either very small to fucking massive depending on how far the leader is above their last point of protection. 

Sport climbing is where there are already bolts in the rock. Trad (for traditional climbing) involves taking your own gear up the rock and placing it in cracks in the rock. Your scenario could be either but sport climbing would probably be a lot easier for you. There are loads of climbing fall compilations and things you can look at. 

It is common that climbers get really tired and then fall on hard routes, but this is generally quite safe. The audience doesn't necessarily know that, though. 

Holds do break, though that isn't super common. If a hold broke and the climber was below a bolt (like they just clipped it) you could do a simple scene where the hold breaks and they take a very small fall. A big fall with the leader high above the bolt would be cooler, but maybe harder to do? 

It's not uncommon to have critters in rock. Bats hang out in cracks a lot and scare the shit out of us not infrequently, especially when you put your hand in a crack and then the crack is warm and fuzzy. Another option. 

Type "weekend whipper" into YouTube to see a lot of different footage of people doing what you are talking about to get inspiration. 

You mentioned a virtual 3D “Mountain”, so I am guessing you want a sense of scale, adventure, and risk.   In other words you want to go “trad”.  No bolts.  Instead of bolts, he places and clips his rope to nuts and cams as he climbs. No blue jeans or chalk bags.  I can see your vision already.  This guy is a serious climber.  An “Alpinist!  And in the mountains, holds break all the time…or maybe even rockfall from above knocks him out and now he has to recover after dangling there, and treating his injuries himself, then slowly climbing on.  Ya know, pretty standard alpinist stuff…

This video shows everything you are looking for

North Face of Uxbrige

Sam Cookwrote:

Type "weekend whipper" into YouTube to see a lot of different footage of people doing what you are talking about to get inspiration. 

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=rock+and+ice+weekend+whipper 

Is it important that Our Hero is doing this climb alone? Keep in mind that most of those lead falls have a belayer (a climbing buddy) at the other end of the rope.

The belayer can be replaced with an anchor, but then Our Hero will have slightly different equipment. And everyone will think Our Hero must be really anti-social. 

there was a movie called Killer Pillar that was widely panned but watching it could give you some insight about what to avoid. Also, the end features a bit of behind the scenes that could be helpful in recreating and improving rock climbing scenes in film. 

there is also a GQ youtube video with Alex Honnold where he breaks down rock climbing in movies which is pretty good. 

https://www.gq.com/video/watch/the-breakdown-alex-honnold-breaks-down-climbing-scenes-from-movies-and-tv

Mark Pilatewrote:

You mentioned a virtual 3D “Mountain”, so I am guessing you want a sense of scale, adventure, and risk.   In other words you want to go “trad”.  No bolts.  Instead of bolts, he places and clips his rope to nuts and cams as he climbs. No blue jeans or chalk bags.  I can see your vision already.  This guy is a serious climber.  An “Alpinist!  And in the mountains, holds break all the time…or maybe even rockfall from above knocks him out and now he has to recover after dangling there, and treating his injuries himself, then slowly climbing on.  Ya know, pretty standard alpinist stuff…

Definitely agree this would be way cooler. Wonder if it's more work than he was bargaining for though? 

Claudine Longetwrote:

This video shows everything you are looking for

North Face of Uxbrige

Yet strangly it is one of the most accurate climbing scenes.

'Lay backing', 'carabiner on white', referring to a piton as a 'peg'.

Mark Pilatewrote:

You mentioned a virtual 3D “Mountain”, so I am guessing you want a sense of scale, adventure, and risk.   In other words you want to go “trad”.  No bolts.  Instead of bolts, he places and clips his rope to nuts and cams as he climbs. No blue jeans or chalk bags.  I can see your vision already.  This guy is a serious climber.  An “Alpinist!  And in the mountains, holds break all the time…or maybe even rockfall from above knocks him out and now he has to recover after dangling there, and treating his injuries himself, then slowly climbing on.  Ya know, pretty standard alpinist stuff…

This is exactly the sort of thing I’m looking for, a sort of grand adventure this man is on, but while doing so he goes slow and methodically, he’s trying to survive this.

JonasMRwrote:

Is it important that Our Hero is doing this climb alone? Keep in mind that most of those lead falls have a belayer (a climbing buddy) at the other end of the rope.

The belayer can be replaced with an anchor, but then Our Hero will have slightly different equipment. And everyone will think Our Hero must be really anti-social. 

It’s not essential that he’s alone but I would prefer it because I want it to seem more isolated, that his life is in the hands of himself literally.

Ricky Harlinewrote:

Your climber should be lead climbing if you want a sense of peril. In top roping the rope is already at the top of the route and falls aren't really falls, you just kind of sit on the rope. Lead climbing has actual fall potential. Lead falls could be either very small to fucking massive depending on how far the leader is above their last point of protection. 

Sport climbing is where there are already bolts in the rock. Trad (for traditional climbing) involves taking your own gear up the rock and placing it in cracks in the rock. Your scenario could be either but sport climbing would probably be a lot easier for you. There are loads of climbing fall compilations and things you can look at. 

It is common that climbers get really tired and then fall on hard routes, but this is generally quite safe. The audience doesn't necessarily know that, though. 

Holds do break, though that isn't super common. If a hold broke and the climber was below a bolt (like they just clipped it) you could do a simple scene where the hold breaks and they take a very small fall. A big fall with the leader high above the bolt would be cooler, but maybe harder to do? 

It's not uncommon to have critters in rock. Bats hang out in cracks a lot and scare the shit out of us not infrequently, especially when you put your hand in a crack and then the crack is warm and fuzzy. Another option. 

Could you recommend any good YouTube videos or articles that explain lead climbing well? I haven’t found any ones that explained it for a newcomer like myself.

Neil Bwrote:

Yet strangly it is one of the most accurate climbing scenes.

'Lay backing', 'carabiner on white', referring to a piton as a 'peg'.

The first time I saw that I very nearly died laughing. Wouldn't it have been odd if climbing took my life by laughing myself to death choking on beer?

There are a number of good how to books out there, I don't pay much attention to that stuff, but I'm sure you can get some good references here.

Jay Friesenwrote:

Could you recommend any good YouTube videos or articles that explain lead climbing well? I haven’t found any ones that explained it for a newcomer like myself.

I skimmed this video and it seems to cover the basic concepts well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SrExxAwe6DI

It's hard to say what's best for your scenario. I think someone in this thread was alluding to lead rope solo, but very few people do lead roped climbing alone. I so happen to be one of the weirdos that does, so I could talk you through that if you want, but be aware that even most climbers are only vaguely aware of it. 

A more realistic scenario would be just free soloing (climbing with no ropes and no protection). Climbers tend to make a distinction between an objective with a lot of hard technical climbing, which we would usually refer to as free soloing, and big mountain objectives that might have some easier climbing on it, which would probably be described simply as scrambling. It would still not really be thought of as free soloing even if technically there was some easier technical climbing on it that was free soloed, although maybe the distinction isn't so meaningful to a non-climber. But regardless, the baddass free soloist climbing something cool big and hard route is impressive, and mountaineers that do solo objectives are also quite badass, as mountains are dangerous places and it's best not to go alone. In both of those situations these distinctions of different types of lead climbing are irrelevant as there is no rope. If you go the mountaineer route you might want to learn a little about mountaineering and what gear a person would have for the sort of objective you're thinking of. I don't mountaineer as I'm a good weather climber only(it started snowing once while I was on lead, true story. See what I mean? Ask someone else), but there are other people here who are into mountaineering that might be able to give you advice if that ends up being the path you want to go down.